Event demand system and method

ABSTRACT

A system and method for event demand creation and event organization is provided in which an interested party can create a demand for an event at a particular location and then encourage other people to join the demand. Once the demand reaches critical mass, the event provider is notified of the demand and asked to agree to the demanded event.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/495,040, filed Jul.28, 2006, published as US2008/0046913, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,577,723,which are incorporated herein by reference in entirety.

FIELD

The invention relates generally to a system and method for measuring thedemand for an event.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Systems exist that permit a user to collect signatures for on-linepetitions. For example, see www.petitiononline.com. These systems permitsignatures to be collected, but do not attempt to determine the demandfor an event nor provide communications between an event source and theaudience to set up and schedule an event once sufficient demand for anevent is determined. Systems also exist that permit users to collaboratewith each other about a common topic. An example of such a web site waswww.publicmind.com which is no longer active. Systems also exist(www.demandid.com) that attempt to gauge the demand of an audience forlive musical performances. This system has a TourVote feature thatpermits a user to register an interest in a particular musical artist.This system does not, however, provide a communications link between theaudience, venue owner and performer so that the performance can bescheduled by the system once sufficient demand is shown. Thus, it isdesirable to provide an event demand system and method and it is to thisend that the present invention is directed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and method for event demand is provided that measures thedemand (an interest level) for an event in a particular location by anaudience and then provides a communications link to the event provider(including a venue owner) once sufficient demand is shown so that thesystem facilitates the scheduling of an event. The event may includevarious different activities including, but not limited to, musicalconcerts, a sporting event, a vote/tally, a book reading, a lecture, anappearance by a particular person, a gathering of a particular group ofpeople, such as a group interested in a particular subject, a particularaction, such as the recall/impeachment of a political figure, and anyother activities in a particular location.

The event demand system is a tool designed for both an interested partywho are one or more users who have a new demand/want to participate inan existing demand as well as an event provider who seek a publicaudience for the event. An example of a website that embodies a portionof the event demand system is the Eventful.com website. As a tool forthe interested party, the system enables users to request desired eventsto happen in a specified location. The interested parties may start anew demand (a demand for a new event and/or in a new location) or joinan existing demand that has already been started. Once an interestedparty starts a demand or joins one, the interested party's task is toenlist other members of the public who would also like this event tohappen, and encourage them to join the demand as well. Similarly, thoseother interested parties are encouraged to spread the word about thedemand and enlist even more people to join, thus creating a viral,grass-roots “campaign.” When the demand has reached a certain size(achieved a critical mass or a sufficient level of demand), and theevent provider is not already aware of the demand, the company contactsthe appropriate agent/representative of the event provider (and/or theactual performer directly if the event is a performance) and makes themaware of this demand and any other demands (possibly in differentlocations or any different times). The event provider is then encouragedto get involved by communicating with the users making the demand, forexample, to specify what the requirements would have to be for theperformer to agree to do an event in that location. As a tool for anevent provider, the demand system enables event providers to announce totheir fans that the event provider wants the fans to indicate where theyshould perform, and with what type of events (concerts, lectures,interviews, book signings, outdoor activities, etc).

As a tool for the event provider, the system enables event providers toembed code on their own websites to invite the public to “demand” eventsto happen. For example, book authors or musicians who have websites fortheir fans, can use the system to encourage fans to “demand” the authorsor musicians to come to a fan's town for a reading or performance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of an implementation of an eventdemand system in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of a computing device that ispart of the event demand system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of a event main unit that ispart of the event demand system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an example of a home page of a web-based system that mayinclude an event demand system;

FIG. 5 is an example of a home page of the event demand system withinthe web-based system;

FIG. 6 shows an example of the local demand page of the event demandsystem;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a user interface for creating a newdemand using the event demand system;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a user interface that permits aninterested party to share or increase the demand for an event;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a user interface for selecting a demandsticker and its characteristics;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of an event provider detail page;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a demand detail page; and

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a demand join page.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The invention is particularly applicable to a web-based event demandsystem and method and it is in this context that the invention will bedescribed. It will be appreciated, however, that the system and methodin accordance with the invention has greater utility since the systemmay be implemented using other computer architectures and computer-basedsystems.

A system and method for event demand is provided that measures thedemand (an interest level) for an event in a particular location by anaudience and then provides a communications link to the event provider(including venue owners) once sufficient demand is shown so that thesystem facilitates the scheduling of an event. The event may includevarious different activities including, but not limited to, musicalconcerts, a sporting event, a vote/tally, a book reading, a lecture, thescreening of a film or video, an appearance by a particular person (suchas an athlete, author, actor, musician, speaker, industry leader,comedians, poets, personalities, etc.), a gathering of a particulargroup of people, such as a group interested in a particular subject, aparticular action, such as the recall/impeachment of a political figure,and any other activities in a particular location.

The event demand system is a tool designed for both an interested partywho are one or more users who have a new demand/want to participate inan existing demand as well as an event provider, such as a band, anorganizer of an event, an author, a venue owner, a filmmaker, anathlete, a musician, a speaker, an industry leader, a comedian, a poet,a personality, etc., who seek a public audience for the event. As a toolfor the interested party, the system enables Eventful.com web site usersto request desired events to happen in a specified location. Theinterested parties may start a new demand (a demand for a new eventand/or in a new location) or join an existing demand that has alreadybeen started. Once an interested party starts a demand or joins one, theinterested party's task is to enlist other members of the public whowould also like this event to happen, and encourage them to join thedemand as well. Similarly, those other interested parties are encouragedto spread the word about the demand and enlist even more people to join,thus creating a viral, grass-roots “campaign.” When the demand hasreached a certain size (achieved a critical mass or a sufficient levelof demand), the company contacts the appropriate agent/representative ofthe event provider (and/or the actual performer directly if the event isa performance) and makes them aware of this demand and any other demands(possibly in different locations or any different times). The eventprovider is then encouraged to get involved by communicating with theusers making the demand, for example, to specify what the requirementswould have to be for the performer to agree to do an event in thatlocation. As a tool for an event provider, the demand system enablesevent providers to announce to their fans that the event provider wantsthe fans to indicate where they should perform, and with what type ofevents (concerts, lectures, interviews, book signings, outdooractivities, etc).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of an implementation of an eventdemand system 20 in accordance with the invention which is a web-basedclient server type architecture. The system may include one or morecomputing devices 22 that are able to communicate over a link 24 to anevent unit 26 that is coupled to a data storage unit 28. The one or morecomputing devices 22 are used by one or more interested party(s) tocreate a new demand and/or join an existing demand for an event at aparticular location. The event unit interacts with the computing devicesto display a user interface to the computing devices, store theinformation about each demand for a particular event in the data storageunit 28 and perform other event demand functions as described below inmore detail. Each computing device 22 may be a laptop computer, desktopcomputer, PDA, mobile phone, wireless email device, set-topcable/satellite boxes, digital video recorder (DVR) devices such as TiVoor any other processing unit based device with sufficient processingpower, memory and connectivity to be able to connect to the event unit26 and interact with the event unit to perform event demand relatedactivities as described below. Each computing device may also be atelephone system (using touch tone interactive systems) wherein the useris able to interact with the event demand system using the telephonesystem. In a preferred embodiment of the system shown in FIG. 1, thecomputing device may be a personal computer. The link 24 may be anycommunications link or network, such as a WAN, LAN, the Internet and thelike with the link being the Internet (the world wide web) in apreferred embodiment of the invention. The event unit 26 may be anyprocessor-based device that can perform the functions and operations ofthe event unit and may preferably be a server computer that is coupledto the link 24.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of the computing device 22 thatis part of the event demand system in FIG. 1 The computing device 22 mayinclude a display device 30 that permits the interested party to viewthe user interface screens of the event unit, a chassis 32 that housesvarious components of the system such as a processing unit 34, apersistent storage device 36 and a memory 37, such as SRAM or DRAM orflash memory, that are interconnected to each other as shown. When usedto interact with the event unit, the memory may store an operatingsystem 38 and browser application 40 that are executed by the processingunit. The browser application, such as for example Internet Explorer,connects to the event unit using a well known HTTP protocol over thelink and permits the computing device and event unit to exchange dataand information using the HTTP protocol and a series of web pages(examples of which are described below) to provide the user interface ofthe event demand system. The computing device may also have one or moreinput/output devices 42, such as the keyboard shown, that permit theinterested party to interact with the user interface of the event demandsystem.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of a event main unit 26 that ispart of the event demand system in FIG. 1. The event maim unit 26 maypreferably be a typical server computer that has one or more processingunits 50, one or more persistent storage devices 52 and a memory 54,such as SRAM or DRAM or flash memory, that are interconnected to eachother as shown. When the server is used to perform the event demandfunctions, the memory may store an operating system (not shown), a webserver software application 56 and an event demand software application58 that are executed by the one or more processing units in order toimplement the event demand functions. The web server applicationcontains a plurality of lines of computer code that are executed by theone or more processing units in order to generate and serve the webpages to each computing device 22 that connects to the event unit sothat the user interface of the event demand system is delivered to eachinterested party. The event demand application contains a plurality oflines of computer code that are executed by the one or more processingunits that perform the various event demand functions of the system. Theevent demand functions may include 1) the generation of a user interfaceof the event demand system; 2) the interaction with each computingdevice; 3) the storage of information about each event demand includingeach interested party, details of the event and the like; 4) the processof generating a new demand; 5) the process of tabulating the demand foreach existing demand; 6) the process of contacting an event provideronce a particular demand reaches a certain level; and 7) delivering asticker to an interested party wherein the sticker permits an interestedparty to be connected to the event demand website from any other websiteas described below in more detail.

The event demand system permits the interest (the demand) for an eventfor a particular location to be measured and then, when there issufficient demand for the event at the particular location, communicatewith the event provider. The life cycle of a demand may take severalpaths, but here are the two most common paths:

a. An interested party starts a demand and then spreads the word viaemail and over the web and offline, to get other interested parties tojoin the demand. Those other interested parties join the demand.Eventually the demand grows to the point where the event provider needsto be contacted if they're not already aware of the demand. The task ofnotifying the event provider may by done by the company that owns theevent demand system, but it may also be automatically done by the eventdemand system. Once the event provider is aware of the demand, they areencouraged to get involved and either indicate what the requirementswould be for the event to take place, or, they indicate that they arenot interested. If the event provider provides requirements, the demandcontinues to grow, and word continues to spread, until the eventprovider agrees to do the event, at which point the event provider andthe demanders select a suitable venue, contact the venue, and schedulethe event. At that point the event is announced on the event demandsystem (such as on a website associated with the event demand systemsuch as www.eventful.com which is a commercial example of the eventdemand system) and is added to the events database portion of eventdemand system.

b. An event provider spreads the word on their own website(s), or onservices such as Myspace, inviting interested party(s) to “demand” themin their specific cities, for events. The interested parties then beginstarting new or joining existing demands for the event provider, and anational or international groundswell of demands pop up. The eventprovider keeps an eye on the demand, posting comments and interactingwith the interested parties through the demands' detail pages' commentfeature, and in time the event provider agrees to one or more of thedemands and collaborates with the interested parties to arrange forvenues and scheduled events.

For the interested parties, the event demand system is a new, convenientway to cause a desired event to happen by leveraging the power of theInternet, and creating a sufficient groundswell of public demand for anevent that the chances of it actually coming about are greatlyincreased. For a event provider, the event demand system connects thepublic and a event provider directly together, enabling both parties tocollaborate and cause desired events to happen. The event providers knowexactly where there is public demand for them, anywhere in the world.With the event demand system, an event provider can dramatically reducecosts of promotion for an event, by shifting the promotion to the publicitself wherein the public does the work of creating a campaign, gettingpeople interested, and campaigning for the event to happen which reducesthe cost of advertising substantially, as the audience is pre-defined.Therefore, the event provider's costs and risks are reduced, meaning theevent provider can profit more from the event (or pass the savings on tothe public, through lower ticket prices).

FIG. 4 is an example of a home page 60 of a web-based system that mayinclude an event demand system. In this example, the web-based system isa web-site hosted by EVDB, Inc. with a web address of www.eventful.com.The website has information about various events, venues, calendars,performers and the like. In addition, the home page has a demand tab 62that permits a user of the website to access the event demandfunctionality of the system. When the user selects the demand tab, ahome page 70 of the event demand system is displayed to the user whereinthe home page is preferably a web page downloaded to the user'scomputing device. The event demand home page 70 may include a demandsearch portion 72 that permits the user to search for a particular eventin a particular location. The demand search portion appears in most ofthe demand event user interfaces and permit a user to type in aperformer's name or an event name or some keyword, and the system thendoes a search and presents a list of matches wherein the list is similarin presentation to the other demand lists mentioned above. The home page70 may also include a “my demands” tab 74, a “local” tab 76, a “hottest”tab 78, a “newest” tab 80, an “all” tab 82 and a “start a new demand”tab 84 each of which will be described in more detail below. In theexample shown in FIG. 5, the hottest demands worldwide are displayed tothe user wherein each event demand (such as the demand for a performanceby Eric Michael Hopper in particular area) is shown. Each demand mayhave an image and information associated with demand, the one or moredemands in the one or more geographic areas for the event, a demandsummary portion 86 that displays the cumulative summary for theparticular event demand and a “Demand It!” button 88 that permits eachuser to join in the particular event demand.

The my demands tab 74 causes a user interface to be generated thatdisplays the list of all of the event demands that the particular user(who has accessed the my demands page) has started or already joined.This user interface is a handy way to keep track of the status of all ofthe demands that the user has shown interest in as an interested party.The list includes a photo image added when the demand was created (or ifno image is available, but the demand is for a performer and theEventful.com system has a stored image for the performer, then theperformer image is used instead), the title of the demand (consisting ofthe name of the performer and the city they're being demanded in, or,the name of the event and the city it is being demanded, in), the nameof the user who created the demand and the date and time when it wascreated, a description of the demand, various links to see details aboutthe demand, and finally, a number indicating how many people have joinedthe demand (similar to the demand summary 86 shown in FIG. 5) and a“Share It” button to spread the word about the demand (by definition,the button would not show “Demand it!” since the user has already joinedor started all demands in this section of the site). When the userclicks on the “Share it” button, the user is shown a page to spread theword about that demand—via emails, via links posted to other sites, orvia Event Demand Stickers which are described below in more detail.

The local demands tab 76 causes a user interface to be generated thatdisplays a list (for the particular user (who might also be aninterested party)) of all of the demands that have been started in agiven local location. If the user is signed in when they access thissection of the site, they will see local events where “local” has beeneither predetermined automatically by the system (by detecting theuser's IP address) or by a user preference setting (the user set theirlocation to a particular city). The attributes of the list areessentially the same as the list in My Demands, except this list showsall demands in a given location, whether you've joined or started themor not. Thus, instead of all of the demands having “Share it” buttons,many will say “Demand it” (See FIG. 5 that has the example) and onesyou've already joined or started will say “Share it”. FIG. 6 shows anexample of the local demand page 90. The list of local demands may besorted alphabetically by Performer/Event name or by the number of peoplein each demand (the biggest demands listed first).

The hottest demands tab 78 causes a user interface to be generated thatdisplays a list (for the particular user (who might also be aninterested party)) of all of the “hottest” demands as of that moment. Anexample of the hottest demands page is shown in FIG. 5. The list of thehottest demands has the same contents as the other demand lists setforth above. The “hottest” demands works similarly to “Weekly Top 40” inthat “hotness” is a measure of the number of interested partiesregistered per unit time. The more interested parties that sign up in agiven amount of time, the hotter the demand becomes. The time period formeasuring the demand “hotness” is flexible, but may be, for example, twodays. In a preferred embodiment, the “hottest demand” page is a list ofthe top 25 demands, sorted by “hotness”.

The newest demands tab 80 causes a user interface to be generated thatdisplays a list (for the particular user (who might also be aninterested party)) of the most recently created demands, with the firstone being the most recent, the next one being the second most recent,etc. The list of the newest demands has the same contents as the otherdemand lists set forth above.

The all demands tab 82 causes a user interface to be generated thatdisplays a list (for the particular user (who might also be aninterested party)) of all demands in the system. By default, the demandsare shown alphabetically. Like the other lists, it is broken down intomultiple pages, which a user can browse through. The list may be sortedalphabetically by Performer/Event name, or by the number of peopledemanding (the biggest demands listed first). The list of the demandshas the same contents as the other demand lists set forth above.

The start a new demand tab 84 causes a user interface to be generatedthat displays a form that users can use to create a new demand. Anexample of a web page 100 with the form is shown in FIG. 7. The formasks the user to indicate whether they are demanding a specificperformer, or, they're demanding a specific event that doesn't have aspecific performer (for instance, a demand for a film screening). If theuser indicates the former, then they are asked to enter the name of theperformer. The system then searches to see if that name is already inthe performer database. If the performer name is already in theperformer database, the system presents the user with a list of possiblematches, and asks the user to select from the list or create a newperformer entirely. If no matches were found, the system lets the usercreate the new performer record, which consists of a name, a one-linerdescription, and tags or keywords that describe this performer (e.g.“musician,” “singer,” “author,” “lecturer,” “scientist”). An example ofthis step is shown in FIG. 7. The user is then asked to specify thelocation of the demand, and the system checks to see if the location isvalid (typically a city name or city, state, country). If there arealready one or more demands for that performer in that city, the user isencouraged to join an existing demand rather than creating a new one,unless the new one is asking the performer to do something differentthan the other demands. If the user indicated that the user is demandingan event and not a performer, the process is essentially the same inthat the user specifies the event, the system searches to see if italready exists or not, and then the system verifies the location.

Once the performer/event and location are specified, the system thenasks the user to provide a detailed, compelling description of the event(this is, after all, a “campaign” and it needs to be as persuasive aspossible), one or more descriptive tags, and an image if available. Oncethe user enters the new demand or joins an existing demand, the userbecomes an interested party who is interested in the particular event.Once the demand is created, the creator is then urged to spread the wordvia email, links, and demand Stickers.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a web page 110 that permits theinterested party to share or increase the demand for an event (a DemandIt! Sticker or a Share It! Sticker) and FIG. 9 illustrates an example ofa web page 120 for selecting a demand sticker and its characteristics.As shown in FIG. 8, the interested party may select a method for sharingthe demand by using email (to send an email to other potentialinterested parties), a link (to place on a website or blog so that userscan access the event demand system) or a demand sticker (which can alsobe placed on a website of blog and users can then access the eventdemand system by clicking on the sticker. In a preferred embodiment ofthe invention, each of these options may be implemented with a piece ofcode that performs the functions described. When the sticker is chosenby the interested party, the user interfaces then permit the user toselect one or more characteristics of the sticker such as the type ofcode used for the sticker (javascript, Flash or HTML code for example),the style of the sticker, the size of the sticker and the code to beinserted into the other website or blog to enable the demand stickerfunctionality. Thus, the stickers are snippets of code that users cancopy and paste onto their web pages or blogs which results in agraphical “badge” often similar in size and shape to a graphicaladvertisement, often placed in a column or sidebar of the page it'sbeing embedded in. The stickers allow interested parties to increase thedemand for a particular event at a particular location by placing thestickers on other websites and blogs.

The stickers may include a performer sticker which is shown in FIG. 9.These are special stickers ideal for performers to advertise to theirfans that they should “demand” the performer in any given city. Thesestickers are more generic stickers in that they advertise theperformer's name, show an image if available, and offer a “demand it”call to action. The system may also generate calendar stickers and groupstickers, etc.

The event demand system may also include an event provider detail pageas example of which is shown in FIG. 10. These pages provide summaryinformation about a given event provider, such as a performer,including: one-liner description; detailed bio; list of tags, one ormore images; a list of known upcoming events already scheduled; a listof demands for this performer; a button enabling users to demand thisperformer; and facilities for users to post comments about thisperformer. There are also RSS and iCalendar feeds for users to downloador subscribe to information about this performer.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a demand detail page that providessummary information about a particular demand, including: the title ofthe demand; description; one or more images; tags; statistical graphsshowing the number of people joining over the past 30 or so days, andthe cumulative count over the past 30 or so days; comments; and tools tospread the word via email, links, or by creating Stickers for thisdemand. As with the other pages, this page has a Demand It! button ifthe user has not already joined this demand already, or a “Share it”button if the system knows that the particular user is already aninterested party and joined the demand. If the event provider isregistered with the event demand system, and has associated their useraccount with the event provider record, then the event provider can postcomments on an demand detail page and the comments will be speciallyhighlighted so users see that the actual performer is participating inthe conversation.

The event demand system may also have an Email It page which is a toolthat allows the interested party to email a demand to a list of emailaddresses. The Email It page also lets the interested party customizethe email by letting the interested party to generate unique text forthe email. The tool permits the system send the emails, or, if thebrowser is configured correctly, the interested party can click link andlaunch the email client and send the email. The goal of this page is toget the interested party to spread the word via email about a demand.Similarly, the Link It page helps users spread the word about a demandand provides the tools to embed links on other websites links back tothe demand on the event demand system.

The event demand system also has a demand join page (see FIG. 12 for anexample of a demand join page.) The demand join page is shown to theuser when the user clicks on a “Demand it!” button from a stickerlocated on the web. The page gets the user to join the demand for theparticular event in the particular location by typing in the user'semail address so that the user becomes an interested party for the eventdemand. The system then sends the interested party avalidation/confirmation email with the user not considered to be amember of the demand until the user has clicked on the link inside theemail message that's sent to them. When they click on the link, theinterested party is sent back to the site where they see the “thank youfor joining” page and where the interested party is encouraged to spreadthe word and get others to join as well.

The event demand system may notify an interested party (or the group ofinterested parties) via email when certain actions occurs with respectto an event demand to which the interested parties are subscribed. Forexample, the event demand system may notify each interested party when acritical mass for the event is achieved. The critical mass is asubjective number of interested parties, determined by the eventprovider, that represents the minimum number of demandees which isrequired before the event provider will consider doing the event. Thesystem may also send out a message when the event provider agrees to thedemanded event at the particular location. This message may be used tosolicit feedback from interested parties about what venue should beselected for the event, when it should be scheduled, or other planningdetails about the proposed event. The system may also send out a messageto all interested parties when the event is scheduled wherein themessage encourages the interested parties to attend the event, indicatethat they are going to the event, and generally encourage their friendsto attend the event.

The event demand system may also include administrator tools availableto the event demand system that support hooking up a user name with aperformer record, changing the state of a demand (“critical mass”,“event scheduled”, etc.), sending emails to list members, etc. Thehooking up of the user name with the event provider record (in thedatabase associated with the event demand system) permits the eventprovider to talk directly to their fans through event, demand andperformer comments. The state of a demand can be moved between one ofthe following states: Started Demand, Reached Critical Mass, PerformerContacted, Performer Agreed and Event Scheduled. The message tointerested parties may be generated by the system, such as when an eventstate changes. The administrator tools also permit an authorized userto, when an actual event is scheduled to satisfy a demand, enter theevent ID of the event that satisfies the demand which causes the demandpage to list the scheduled event prominently.

The event demand system may also permit a user/interested party tocreate a demand for an event that includes multiple event providers,such as a demand that Bono of U2 and Pete Townshend of The Who come to aparticular university and discuss and debate the current state of musictoday. The event demand system may further include a performer dashboardthat is a set of tools that enable a performer to better manage theirdemands, their event calendars, and all other information about them onthe event demand system wherein these tools may include one or more of:current status of each demand for the performer; recommended actions;manage available dates for performances; specify venue/city preferences,requirements for performing; specify a minimum number of people ordollar amount for an acceptable demand; manage communications withdemanders; pay to send communications to all fans (e.g., promos,discounts); and tools for adjusting rules for specific or for alldemands for the performer.

The event demand system may further include various venue tools. Forexample, the system may include a tool for a particular venue to be ableto register to be selected as a venue for a particular event. The systemmay also include tools for enabling venues to start demands and managethem similar to performers (e.g., “the Belly Up Tavern would like todemand an acoustic show put on by Jackson Browne—sign up to help makethis happen”). The system may also include tools for fans and performersto “vote” on which venue is best for a demanded event.

The system may also provide tools for sponsors to start demands andpromote them to fans, performers, and venues. The sponsors would pay theevent demand system and probably the performer as well for thesponsorship. The system may also sell sponsorships for demands thatalready exist, and offer sponsors the sponsorships of the actual eventsif they come about. For the example of the system shown in FIG. 4, theevent demand system may include cross-promotion across the system sothat, for example, when searching or browsing for events in Phoenix,Ariz., the system shows the current hottest demands in Phoenix. Asanother example, on Event Detail Pages, if there are one or moreperformers associated with the event, offer buttons to Demand thoseperformers for new events. The system may also include a tool to enableevent providers, venues, and interested parties to print out posters ofdemands, to spread the word in the physical world. The system may alsohave a tool that generates a heat map that graphically showsusers/interested parties and event providers where there is demand (intotal or for specific events or performers), across the whole world, orin a specific country, or in a particular state/province/city. Thesystem may also include tools that enables users/interested parties tobrowse demands geographically by category (e.g., see only music demandsin San Diego, or film screening demands in NYC, etc).

When an existing user of the system shown in FIG. 4 demands a particularevent provider who is a performer, the user visits the Start a Demandpage, specifies a performer and a location (city, metro area, Joe's Bar& Grill, etc.), provides a description for the demand, and then thedemand is created. A user must be a registered user of the event demandsystem before the user can create a demand. Performers are specified bysearching a performers database. If the desired performer is found, itis simply selected. If the performer is not already in the database, theperformer is automatically added. After the' demand is created, the useris prompted to help promote the demand by emailing their friends,putting up a demand “sticker”, and linking to the demand on web pages,blog comments, etc. This same process flow occurs when a user creates ademand for an event, such as a film screening, play, conference, insteadof a human performer.

The system provides a process by which an event provider, such as aperformer, can solicit demands for themselves and there are severaltools available to the performer to help in this regard. First, theperformer should check for and if necessary create a performer datarecord on the event demand system. Once the performer has a performerpage, the performer should get in touch with event demand system staffvia email or phone so we can connect their username with their performerID which allows the performer to communicate with users on the eventdemand system and be officially identified as the performer. Comments onevents and demands for that performer are identified by a special“performer” icon, and include special color highlighting to indicatethat this message is from the performer. The system allows a performerto communicate with their fan base using their blog, website or emaillist and ask the fans to go to the event demand system and demand theperformer. Another tool available to performers is the Performer Stickerwhich are similar to Demand stickers, but encourage users to demand theperformer in their own city.

A user is asked to join a demand by visiting the event demand system orby hearing about the demand through email, a news story, a sticker on awebsite they frequent, a mention in a blog or website, or even by wordof mouth. The preferred method for asking the user to join the demand isthe “Demand It!” button that was described previously. If the user is alogged in system user, the user can join a demand with a single clickthat does not interrupt the user's browsing. For example, if the demandwas presented in the form of a sticker on a 3rd party website, the userdoes not leave the website when the user joins a demand since the buttonsimply changes from “Demand it!” to “Share it!”, indicating that thedemand request has been made. Obviously, the user still has theopportunity to then click (leaving the website) to go to event demandsystem where they can learn more about the demand, email all theirfriends, create their own demand sticker, etc.

If the user is not a logged in system user, the user is taken to a formon the system website (an example is shown in FIG. 12) where they areasked to enter their email address. After they submit their emailaddress, they are taken to a “Thank You” page noting that they willreceive a confirmation email that they will need to respond to for theirdemand to be officially counted. The email is sent immediately afterthey submit their email address, so the turn-around time onacknowledging the demand is typically very short. When the user clicksthe “confirm” link in the confirmation email, they are taken back to thedemand detail user interface on the event demand system where they arethanked for joining the demand, and given the opportunity to email alltheir friends and ask them to join too. When a user is asked for theiremail address, they have the opportunity to check a checkbox saying“Remember my email address for future demands”. If the user checks thecheckbox, their email address is remembered in an HTTP cookie on theuser's computer. Once the email is saved, the user experience isidentical to a logged-in user so that their next demand registration ishandled via a single click mechanism described above.

When a new system user wishes to register as a system user, the userclicks on the “Register” link in the system website header or they maybe prompted to register when they attempt to perform some action (suchas creating a demand) that requires registration. During registration,the user inputs a username, password choice (specifying the passwordtwice for verification) and a valid email address. If the username isnot already taken by another user, and if the two password stringsmatch, the user is entered in the Users database, and then automaticallylogged in to the event demand system. If the username is already takenby another user, the new user is prompted to choose a different usernamealong with a list of possible usernames that are not already taken. Ifthe password strings do not match, the user is prompted to correct themistake.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodimentof the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined bythe appended claims.

1. A computer-implemented method for creating a demand for an event at aparticular location, the method comprising: creating, by an interestedparty on an event demand system, a demand for an event by an eventprovider at a particular location; electronically dispersing a requestto join the demand; and automatically notifying the event provider whenthe demand reaches a predetermined number of interested parties torequest the event at the particular location.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the request to join the demand further comprises one of locatinga demand it button on the event demand system for the demand, sending anemail message to a plurality of users, posting a link on a plurality ofother sites that link to the demand on the event demand system, andposting a sticker on a plurality of other sites that link to the demandon the event demand system.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein thesticker further comprises a piece of code that is placed on theplurality of other sites.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the eventfurther comprises one of musical concerts, a sporting event, avote/tally, a book reading, an appearance by a particular person, agathering of a particular group of people with an interest in particularsubject, a particular action and any other activities in a particularlocation.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the event provider furthercomprises a band, an organizer of an event, an author, an venue owner,an athlete, a musician, a speaker, an industry leader, a comedian, apoet and a personality.
 6. A system for creating a demand for an eventat a particular location, the system comprising: a demand storage unitthat stores one or pieces of data about a plurality of demands, eachdemand being an event by an event provider at a particular location; anda computer-based event demand site having a demand creation module thatpermits an interested party to create a demand for an event wherein thecreated demand is stored in the demand storage unit, a demand join unitthat electronically disperses a request to join the created demand and anotifier unit that automatically notifies an event provider of thecreated demand when the demand reaches a predetermined number ofinterested parties to request the event at the particular location. 7.The system of claim 6, wherein the demand join unit further comprises apiece of code for locating a demand it button on the event demand sitefor the created demand, a piece of code for sending an email message toa plurality of users about the created demand, a piece of code forposting a link on a plurality of other sites that link to the createddemand on the event demand site, and a piece of code for posting asticker on a plurality of other sites that link to the created demand onthe event demand site.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the stickerfurther comprises a piece of code that is placed on the plurality ofother sites.
 9. The system of claim 6, wherein the event furthercomprises one of musical concerts, a sporting event, a vote/tally, abook reading, an appearance by a particular person, a gathering of aparticular group of people with an interest in particular subject, aparticular action and any other activities in a particular location. 10.The system of claim 9, wherein the event provider further comprises aband, an organizer of an event, an author, an venue owner, an athlete, amusician, a speaker, an industry leader, a comedian, a poet and apersonality.